


build a home

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: 1001 Nights, F/M, Fluff, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-26 00:17:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18271982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: Ellie’s been driving past her dream house for years. Nick brings her inside.





	build a home

**Author's Note:**

> For the 1001 Nights challenge on dreamwidth, where fics have to be 1001 or 1000 words long.

Having finished the grand tour, Ellie stood in the living room, turning around slowly. Her mind’s eye filled in all the details of how she’d put her stamp on this house, right down to where her couch would best go to take maximum advantage of the huge fireplace. She could picture herself there, curled up with a book, snuggled up against Nick as he placed a kiss to the top of her head...

As if he could hear her thoughts, he appeared at her side. “What do you think?” 

She sighed as she faced him. “It’s even more perfect inside than it is outside,” she told him. Then she tilted her head, narrowed her eyes. “Why did you bring me here?”

Nick shrugged his shoulders but she knew him well enough to see the slightly evasive, almost nervous look in his eyes. “You don’t like my idea of a date?” 

If he was prevaricating, Ellie knew there was something up. “Nick...” 

He heard the warning tone in her voice. “It’s your dream house,” he told her, as if she didn’t already know that, as if she hadn’t been driving past this place every day for years, wishing she could live here. “And it’s for sale.” 

She knew that too, had been on the realtor’s website every day for the last week, dreaming of what ifs and maybes. She nodded, waited for him to continue, but he didn’t speak. He just shrugged again, which was when the penny dropped. “Wait... are you saying we should buy this place? Together?” 

“No.” 

Ellie’s stomach dropped in what she immediately recognised as disappointment, though she pushed it away as quickly as she could. There was no way they could buy this house together; after all, they’d only been officially dating for three weeks. Even if their first official date had spanned a whole, glorious, case free, three day weekend, it was way too soon for them to be thinking of anything quite so major as that. 

“Oh,” she said, affecting a laugh. “I mean, right, of course...” 

He spoke over her, quietly, seriously. “I already did.” 

The world seemed to stop spinning with his words, or maybe that was just because Ellie, speaker of six languages, couldn’t seem to make them make sense. “What?” 

Nick shrugged again. “I already bought it. I signed the contracts today. That’s where I went at lunch.” 

There was a punchline in there somewhere, Ellie thought, there had to be. And when she found it, she’d kill him. Justifiable homicide, she thought. Gibbs would back her up. She shook her head to clear it of murderous thoughts, instead concentrated on trying to think. “You can’t afford it,” she told him, because she’d seen the price on her many forays to the website. Even with two of them paying the mortgage, it would be a stretch. 

Nick shifted on his feet, reached up to rub the back of his neck with one hand. “I can.” Before she could ask how, he told her. “I was undercover for eight years, Ellie... I didn’t spend a whole lot of my salary. Or any of my salary, come to think of it. It was supposed to be my retirement fund.” He looked around the room, at the high ceiling, the fireplace, back to her. “Then I saw this place was on the market.” His lips twitched. “You really should log out of your browser windows at work.” 

He was teasing, but the familiar moment didn’t stop the pounding of Ellie’s heart. “You bought this place?”

Nick took a step towards her, all serious now. “Yes.” 

Tears came into Ellie’s eyes and she couldn’t say exactly why. “You bought my dream house?” 

Nick cocked his head to one side, reached out and took her hand in his. “I bought us your dream house,” he corrected. 

“Us?”

He nodded. “I want us to live here. Make a life here. You, me, anyone else who might come along.” She wanted to laugh. She wanted to cry. She settled for just staring at him. “I want to marry you, Ellie. Or not, if that’s what you want, I’m good with that too. I just want to be with you.” 

“Nick...” She sucked in a shuddering breath. “This is crazy. We’ve only been dating three weeks...” 

“Ellie, I knew it after three minutes. I knew it way before that. And I know you did too.” His other hand moved, closed around her fingers so that he was holding both her hands lightly so that she could break the grip if she really wanted to. 

She didn’t want to. 

“Look, I understand if you don’t have an answer for me right now, I’ve thrown a lot at you, I know that.” His fingers tightened on hers, just for an instant. “But you needed to know... I’m all in, Ellie. Forever. I’m not going anywhere.” 

This time, her breath in was more like a sob. He looked momentarily stricken at the sound, looked like he was about to take her into his arms but he stopped when she shook her head. 

“Yes.” 

It was Nick’s turn to frown. “Yes?” As he said the word, his frown lifted, changed into something that looked an awful lot like hope. 

Ellie felt the tears break free from her eyes at the same time as a smile broke free from her lips. “Yes, I will live here with you. As your wife.” She would have said more but she didn’t get a chance, not when Nick let out a whoop of sheer unmistakable delight, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around. Her arms went around his neck and she hung on tight, laughing and crying all at once. 

When her feet once more touched the ground, physically if not metaphorically, he carefully reached up to wipe her tears away. “I love you,” he told her and there were no tears, just smiles as she kissed him and told him, “I love you too.”


End file.
